“Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope, in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.”
Psalm 42:5, NIV
Martin Lloyd-Jones was a Welsh Protestant minister and medical doctor who was influential in the Reformed wing of the British evangelical movement in the 20th Century. For thirty years, he was the minister of Westminster Chapel in London.
He preached a sermon entitled, “Talk to Yourself” based on Psalm 42:5. In it, he asked, “Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you.”
Pastor Lloyd-Jones notes that Psalm 42:5 gives us a different path to take. The Psalmist, instead of “allowing this self to talk to him, starts talking to himself.” It is as if the Psalmist says, “Listen here, self—I will speak to you.”
Lloyd-Jones tells us, “This self of ours has be to handled. Do not listen to him, turn on him; speak to him; condemn him; upbraid him; encourage him; remind him of what you know, instead of listening placidly to him and allowing him to drag you down and depress you. For that is what he will always do if you allow him to be in control. The devil takes hold of self and uses it in order to depress us. We must stand up as the Psalmist did and say, “Why are you cast down? Why are are you disquieted within me? Stop being so! Hope through in God, for I shall yet praise Him!”
Pastor Bob Kelleman, in his blog on RPMministries.com says it another way. “To experience Christ’s victory over anxiety, fear, and worry, we have to master our thought life. We have to speak truth to ourselves and align our thoughts with God’s thoughts.”
Pastor Chris McGarvey, lead pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Wilmington, Delaware, in a blog on ForTheChurch.com entitled “Self-Talk and Sanctification,” notes that, “If the Son of God is an advocate for us in heaven, the Spirit of God is the helper-advocate in us on earth. And, how does He sound? He tells us the truth But, He does so with the love and tenderness that is the heart of God for His children. …God hates our sin because He loves us…. Satan only hates us….Satan is soft on sin in order to be hard on us.”
So, how can you tell the difference between sounding like the truth of the Spirit or sounding like the lies of Satan? Pastor McGarvey gives us several examples:
“The Spirit wants you to loathe your sins. Satan wants you to loathe yourself. The Spirit says, ‘There’s something wrong with you. I’m here to help..’ Satan says, ‘What’s wrong with you? You are hopeless.’”
So, what is the way we practice sounding like the Spirit when we talk to ourselves?
Read the Scriptures regularly—learn the tone God uses. Recite His words.
Learn to recognize Wisdom as spoken in the Scriptures, especially in Proverbs. Repeat this wisdom to yourself.
And, as Pastor McGarvey notes, “Rehearse the words of God—tune into His tone. Counsel yourself not only with his words, but also with His heart.”
As the Psalmist tells us, we must put our hope in God. Tune into Him. Praise His Holy name!